I was prescribed Venlafaxine Effexor approx. 3 years ago by a British GP. I had suffered anxiety and panic attacks for many years but coped on the whole without anyone noticing I was suffering. Then I developed depression due to an event in my life. My GP monitored my depression and use of Venlafaxine only when the review period evolved for my repeat prescription or when I made an appointment to explain that I had worsening feelings, no motivation to 'do anything' suicidal thoughts and in three years have gained approx. 5 stone in weight. My GP would then just 'up the dose'. In the end I was taking 3 x 75 mg of Venlafaxine daily. I have spent the last 2 years feeling suicidal, exhausted and sleeping from Friday evenings after getting home from work until Monday mornings when I had to go to work, only waking to have a drink, a quick bite to eat and pop to the loo. My GP said earlier this month 'perhaps this medication is not having the desired effects' (penny dropped) so he told me to wean myself off the drug within a month then come back and see him. Well I have weaned myself off and to date I have been 8 days free from Venlafaxine. Weaning of this drug is extremely hard and has a lot of side effects. I have had bad nightmares, excessive sweating, shakes and tremors, appetite changes, blurred vision and major suicidal thoughts to name a few, it has been a complete emotional rollercoaster that I would not like to experience again. My depression has worsened throughout my time on this drug and I now have to face how to deal with depression without help from drugs. I would seriously ask people to make sure they are closely monitered on this drug and to keep telling the professionals if they feel they are not getting any better of are in fact feeling worse.
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Everything this person has said about venlafaxine has happened to me. I suffered terrible gastric problems with this drug. I was on 225mg a day, for the pass 6 months i have been on a reduction programme. I am now down to 75mg every other day, but cannot seem to progress any further because the side effects of withdrawal are so bad. Constant nauseau which i would describe as a vertigo like sickness feeling. Flashing and movements out of the corner of my eyes. Nightmares, cramp in my legs which wakes me up at night and constant dizziness until my next dose is due.
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I hate venlafaxine! This is the second time I've been on this stuff. 5 years ago I had my first bought of serious depression. I was put on fluoxetine, then venlafaxine, then cytalopram switched to e-cytalopram and now back to venlafaxine at a high dose (300mg per day). This was prescribed by my shrink as I was adamant about not taking a mood stabilizer instead. My quality of life is crap. I've put on loads of weight with venlafaxine, which has made my low self esteem even worse. The drowsiness is so bad that I have to take modafinil- this is usually taken for narcolepsy. I been constantly depressed for so long now I don't remember what it feels like to be really happy. Currently in the process of weaning myself off venlafaxine as the side effects drastically outnumber any positives. DONT take it!
These posts are both interesting and frightening. I've just been moved from Mirtazapine to Venlafaxine and Quetiapine (a mood stabiliser).
Mirtazapine made me extremely drowsy, I literally couldn't get out of bed each morning because the \"hangover\" from the drug in the evening was so bad. Since the first day of the new medication I've felt much more awake and chatty, and the quetiapine makes me drowsy enough to be tired in the evening, but without the hangover, so I've actually been able to get up before noon!!
But apart from the name of the tablet I can completely relate to the stories. I guess it's proof that everyone is different. And most of the science based on medications for mental health are guesses at best- at worst the studies proving the medication doesn't work are gotten rid of, so the pharmecutical companies win either way.
Call in to see your GP and demand you get an appointment with a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist, or at least some kind of talking therapy. That's what they should prescribe for all mental health problems, because it is by far the best.
Hope that helped and take care